Disentangling the relative effects of ambient energy, water availability, and energy–water balance on pteridophyte species richness at a landscape scale in China

Understanding what factors generate geographic variation in species richness is a fundamental goal of ecology and biogeography. Water and energy are considered as the major environmental factors influencing large-scale patterns of species richness, but their roles vary among taxa and regions. Pteridophytes are an ideal group of organisms for examining the relationship between species richness and their environment because the distribution of …